Prairie High School’s slowpitch softball seniors are finding that a longtime rivalry can look a lot different when both sides are wearing the same uniform.
With Prairie and Battle Ground combining their programs for the season, Falcon seniors Addison Randall, Alyssa Plew and Larkin Halbach said the experience has created an opportunity to build friendships while keeping their softball skills sharp.
For the players, slowpitch provides a bridge into the school year and, for several, preparation for the spring fastpitch season. Despite a loss on Tuesday, Sept. 8 against R.A. Long High School, the team still kept a positive attitude alive, which was evident in the trio of Falcon seniors.
“I enjoyed that it's very slow paced but also it keeps me in shape and it's just fun to have a fall sport along with a spring sport which is very similar in like tactics and technique and stuff,” Randall said.
Plew added she enjoys meeting new girls, creating new friendships as well as being a two-sport athlete.
“I love to play a fall sport. It keeps me in shape,” Halbach said. “I primarily play fast pitch so it just keeps me in shape for the spring and I get to make new friends and meet new people and I have great coaches, so I love that.”
The combination has also softened the typical Battle Ground-Prairie rivalry for the girls on the slowpitch team.
Rather than feeling like two separate groups, the seniors said the players have quickly become teammates and friends.
“I don't think there's much of a rivalry with us. We're kind of one group, one family,” Plew said. “When I went to Battle Ground it's like I knew some of the girls so it's very amazing.”
Halbach described the team as a community despite the schools' history as rivals.
“I feel like we're like one community, like no matter if they're rivals or not, I feel like we're just one team trying to play together and trying to play this sport and trying to fill everyone in together,” she said.
Head coach Robert Haensel has seen that same dynamic develop among the players.
“Schools coming together, we're forming one team, we're one community, it's the Battle Ground school district community coming together and so, (we) just kind of embraced it,” Haensel said. “They're a really good group, quite a few of them have been with us for the last two to three years, but they've always been a very compassionate, very welcoming group, so that's what we love about them.”
For younger players considering softball, the seniors see slowpitch as an accessible way to get started.
“I would definitely recommend it because coming into fast pitch as a girl that has not ever played softball, slowpitch is a very good sport to start off easy and slow and get an idea of what softball is like,” Randall said.
After three away games this week, the next home game for the Falcon/Tiger team will be at Prairie High School on Monday, Sept. 21, against Columbia River High School at 4:30 p.m., with the first Battle Ground home game slated for Thursday, Sept. 24 at 4:30 p.m.
